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Chocolate Fever (film)
| producer = | screenplay = | story = Phil LordTBA |based on= |starring= |narrator=Tom Kane |music=Henry Jackman |editor=Robert Fisher Jr. |studio= TBA * Arad Productions * Lord Miller Productions * Pascal Pictures }} |distributor=Sony Pictures Releasing |release= |time=102 minutes |country=United States |language=English |ratings=PG (MPAA) |budget=$304 million |gross=$2.421 million |preceded=The JH Movie Collection Movie 2: The Second Part'' |followed=''Spider-Gwen'' }} Chocolate Fever is an 2019 American computer-animated adventure comedy film based on the book of the same name by Robert Kimmel Smith. The movie title is directed by Bob Persichetti, Peter Ramsey, and Rodney Rothman from a screenplay by Phil Lord and Rothman and a story by Lord. The film stars Max Charles, Sadie Sandler, Bex Taylor-Klaus, Tim Allen, Tom Hanks, Hailee Steinfeld, Jamie Chung, David Schwimmer, Will Arnett and Shameik Moore. The movie title is distributed by Sony Pictures Releasing, released by Columbia Pictures and produced by Sony Pictures Animation in association with Movie Land Animation Studios. It is an international co-production of the United States, United Kingdom, Denmark and Japan. Plans for Chocolate Fever to be developed by Jamie Chung were first revealed in 2015, and officially announced by Bex Taylor-Klaus in the late 2015. Ted, Randy and Pidge joined over the next two years, with Jamie Chung and Steve Carell cast in July 2017. Ted V. Miller and Randy Thom wanted the film to have its own unique style, combining Movie Land Digital Production Services' computer animation pipeline with traditional hand-drawn animation production techniques inspired by the book written by Robert Kimmel Smith. Completing the animation for the film required up to 140 animators, the largest crew ever used by Sony Pictures Animation for a film to date. Chocolate Fever had its world premiere at the Regency Village Theater in Los Angeles on August 16, 2019 and was theatrically released in the United States on August 23, 2019 in 2D, 3D, RealD 3D, Dolby Cinema, IMAX, and IMAX 3D formats. The film received positive reviews from critics, who commended its humor, screenplay, animation, and voice acting, although some said it was not as "fresh" as the first film. It has grossed at $2.144 million worldwide against a $100 million budget. The film received praise for its animation, characters, story, voice acting, humor, and soundtrack. It received mixed reviews from critics for its humour and grossed $2.421 million against a $304 million budget. The film's animation was provided by Movie Land Digital Production Services. Plot Young Henry Green loves chocolate so much, he eats it every day and puts it on everything: chocolate mashed potatoes, chocolate-sprinkled noodles, chocolate marshmallows. Then one day at school, Henry notices that he is breaking out in little brown spots. His teacher rushes him to the school nurse, who determines that Henry has a strange rash. The teacher and the nurse both notice a mysterious odor of chocolate in the air. The small brown spots begin turning into larger brown spots, with an audible popping noise. Alarmed, the nurse sends Henry to the hospital. At the hospital, Henry is examined by Dr. Fargo, who sends a culture from the spots to the lab. The lab returns with the news that Henry's spots are made of "100% pure chocolate." Fargo announces that Henry is the first person in history to be diagnosed with "chocolate fever." The doctor makes plans to broadcast his discovery to the world, but Henry, frightened, runs away. While pursued by the police, Henry runs into a group of boys from another school who bully him over his appearance. Henry bluffs them by telling them that his chocolate fever is a contagious and deadly disease, and they allow him to escape. That night, Henry, exhausted, crawls into the sleeper cab of a semi-trailer truck. He wakes when the driver, Mac, drives away with him. Mac convinces Henry that his parents are probably worried about him and offers to drive him back home, but the two are unexpectedly hijacked by two criminals named Lefty and Louie, who believe Mac is hauling a load of valuable furs. They are confused to find that Mac's truck really contains a load of chocolate bars. Now left with two unexpected hostages, the crooks take Mac and Henry back to their hideout and tie them up while they plan what to do next. But a group of dogs, on the trail of Henry's chocolate aroma, burst into the hideout, distracting Lefty and Louie while Mac frees himself and takes their guns. The police arrive and arrest the criminals. Mac and Henry drive on to the candy company to drop off the cargo of chocolate bars and call Henry's parents. Plant owner Alfred "Sugar" Cane recognizes Henry's illness and explains that the only way to cure chocolate fever is by eating the opposite of chocolate: vanilla. He gives Henry vanilla pills and explains that when he was a boy, he, too, suffered from chocolate fever. While Mr. Cane still loves chocolate, he learned to enjoy it in moderation. Back home, Henry eventually recovers from his chocolate fever and the brown spots vanish. When his mother offers him chocolate syrup on his french toast, Henry remembers moderation and decides to go without the syrup, using cinnamon instead. He is so delighted by the taste of cinnamon that he finds himself thinking of all the other foods that might be improved with cinnamon... only to wonder if there might be such a thing as "cinnamon fever." Cast * Max Charles as Young Henry Green * Sadie Sandler as Sarah * Bex Taylor-Klaus as Henry Green's mother * Hailee Steinfeld as Emily * Tom Hanks as Dr. Fargo * Tom Kane as the narrator * Adam Young as Lefty * Tom Kenny as Louie * T.J. Miller as Mac * Alan Tudyk as Alfred "Sugar" Cane Production Development In March 2018, it was reported that Columbia Pictures, Sony Pictures Animation and Movie Land Animation Studios had acquired the rights to the American children's novel, Chocolate Fever, to adapt it into a hand-drawn computer animated feature film, as a partnership between Columbia Pictures, Sony Pictures Animation, Movie Land Animation Studios, Arad Productions, Lord Miller Productions and Pascal Pictures with Bob Persichetti, Peter Ramsey and Rodney Rothman, who is previously collaborated with Sony Pictures Animation on Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, were attached to direct it. Movie Land Animation Studios had already begun the process of starting development of movies with budgets of around $320 million. The intellectual property for these films was meant to be supplied by Movie Land Animation Studios among others and included Penguinopolis, Smash of Claws, The Animals in the Attic and Stickman 2: Larry's Adventure had been approaching the original crew from the television series to make a high-profile, animated theatrical feature-length film adaptation and had long wanted to partner with Columbia Pictures and Sony Pictures Animation to release the film given the network's extraordinary legacy in the world of animation, including some of the most enduring characters on cable television history. Bob Persichetti, Peter Ramsey and Rodney Rothman agreed to make a feature film version of the show with the promise it would be the first of a planned trilogy. During development stages of the film, he and his co-director Chris Williams, and co-writer Sergio Pablos intended to revisit some of the greatest films of the time, with Despicable Me and Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse having the core inspirations for the film. Writing In March 2015, Phil Lord revealed via Twitter that he had begun writing the screenplay for the film along with Rodney Rothman. Casting On April 2019, it was confirmed that Jamie Sparer Roberts are all hired as casting directors for the movie. That same month, Max Charles, who had voiced Sherman from Mr. Peabody & Sherman and Kion from The Lion Guard, has signed on to voice Young Henry Green. Animation and visual effects As with The Star, Sony Pictures Animation will have the animation produced by another studio other than Sony Pictures Imageworks, which handles digital production for most of SPA's films. For this film, Chocolate Fever will be animated by WarnerMedia's Movie Land Digital Production Services and will also be animated in a combination of motion capture along with photo-realistic computer animation. The visual effects and animation for Chocolate Fever is animated and created by Movie Land Digital Production Services and was made using Autodesk Maya. During peak production, there were between 80 and 100 animators working on the project. The animation of the human characters were done via motion capture. Design The crew used the same processes from the original television series in the making of the film, most notably the 'skroutlines', which was a seamless blend of a more traditional screenplay with a more simple outline which resembled strong short stories and gave the storyboard artists such as Maurice Fontenot, Abigail Nesbitt and Guy Moore all the creative and aesthetic freedom neccessary. Warburton and Willems themselves provided the film's animatics. It took around a year for two animators to create 10 seconds of footage that reflected the producers's vision; the animation work developed from there. During initial development, the directors worked with a single animator to establish the film's look. This number eventually grew to 60 animators during production. It became clear that this would not be enough to complete the film on time, so the crew was expanded further. The number had reached 142 animators by February 2019 and at one point to 177 animators, the largest animation crew that Movie Land Digital Production Services had ever used for a film. Animation work was completed in April 28, 2019. The CGI and hand-drawn animation for the film was combined with "line work and painting and dots and all sorts of comic book techniques" to make it look like it was created by hand, which was described as "a living painting". This was achieved by artists taking rendered frames from the CGI animators and working on top of them in 2D, with the goal of making every frame of the film "look like a comic panel". Lord described this style of animation as "totally revolutionary", and explained that the design combines the in-house style of Sony Pictures Animation with the "flavor" of digital artists such as Christopher Arambulo Cosgrove and Chris Lawrence. The directors all felt that the film would be one of the few that audiences actually "need" to watch in 3D due to the immersive nature of the animated world created, and the way that the hand-drawn animation elements created specifically for the film create a unique experience; Persichetti described this experience as a combination of the effects of an old-fashioned hand-drawn multiplane camera and a modern virtual reality environment. Pre-production Pre-production officially began in the United Kingdom by early December 2015. That same month, director Bob Persichetti, Peter Ramsey, and Rodney Rothman stated that the film will be another great love story with a new love interest being cast. The next month, production designer Bill Boes was announced to be designing the film's production designer, as well as Kasia Walicka-Maimone, also making the movie as costume designer. Music and soundtrack Henry Jackman provided the score for the film. Daniel Pemberton, who was collaborated with the filmmakers on Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, was previously provided the score for the film, but on April 30, 2018, Daniel was replaced by Henry Jackman to provide the score for the 2018 superhero film Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. The soundtrack will be released digitally on September 12, 2019 and on Compact Disc on September 17, 2019 by Atlantic Records. A separate album containing Henry Jackman's score was released by Sony Classical Records. Technology PIX System provided the production crew with secure access to production content and project management throughout the suite of devices used. Release The movie will be released theatrically on August 23, 2019 in IMAX, RealD 3D, Dolby Cinema and 2D theaters by Sony Pictures Releasing. Marketing Very little information about the film's plot and characters were revealed until Sony eventually released a teaser poster for it on November 17, 2018. On December 14, 2018, the teaser trailer was released before Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse in theaters, with the former using the song "This Is What You Came For" from Calvin Harris and Rihanna to introduce the beginning of the film. Four month later, the film's first full trailer was released in two versions with the song "Good to Be Alive" from Meghan Trainor, both offering different content. On April 26, 2019, the film's final trailer was released only in the United States. * The teaser trailer was shown before Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse exclusively in theaters on December 14, 2018. * The first official trailer was released on March 1, 2019 before The Hampster Movie, Captain Marvel, Wonder Park, Nancy Drew and the Hidden Staircase, Dumbo, Shazam and Missing Link. This is the first trailer to be released online. * The final trailer and the second trailer to be released online was released on June 21, 2019 before Toy Story 4 and Spider-Man: Far From Home. Home media Chocolate Fever will be release for purchase on Digital Download and Movies Anywhere on November 12, 2019, with the Ultra HD Blu-ray, Blu-ray and DVD releases on November 26, 2019 by Sony Pictures Home Entertainment in the United States. Reception Box office As of April 26, 2019, Chocolate Fever has grossed $2.421 million in the United States, Canada and German, and $233 million in other territories, for a total worldwide gross of $399.5 million, against a production budget of $304 million. On March 2, 2019, the film surpassed Hotel Transylvania 2 to become Sony Pictures Animation's highest grossing film domestically, unadjusted for inflation. In the United States, Canada, Germany, Japan and Mexico, Chocolate Fever was released on August 23, 2019, and was projected to gross $30–35 million from 3,813 theaters in its opening weekend. It made $12.6 million on its first day, including $3.5 million from Thursday night previews, and went on to debut to $35.4 million, finishing first at the box office and marking the best-ever December opening for an animated film. The film made $16.7 million in its second weekend, finishing fourth behind newcomers Aquaman, Bumblebee, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, Sarcastics and Mary Poppins Returns, and then $18.3 million in its third weekend, finishing fourth again. In its fifth weekend the film made $13 million, finishing in fourth for a third straight week. The weekend following its Best Animated Picture win, the film was added to 1,661 theaters (for a total of 2,104) and made $2.1 million, marking a 138% increase from the week before. Critical response On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 90% based on 141 reviews, with an average rating of 8.9/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "Chocolate Fever" offers a colorful distraction that should keep younger viewers entertained - and a story whose message might even resonate with older audiences." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 92 out of 100, based on 25 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A-" on an A+ to F scale, while PostTrak reported filmgoers gave it 4 out of 5 stars. Accolades Credits Gallery References External links Coming soon! 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